I’m A Celebrity contestant Dean McCullough has had a rough time of it during his first few days in the jungle, and viewers are predicting he’ll be the first to leave.
Meanwhile, some less charitable audience members on X are calling him “fake” and accusing him of “playing up to the cameras for airtime”.
Hosts Ant and Dec said they were “genuinely disappointed” in the Northern Irish radio DJ’s performance on the Sinister Sarcophagus trial earlier this week.
They had to comfort Dean after he broke into tears following the trial. He didn’t survive it very long, collecting just two stars and calling out the reality TV show’s safe word in order to end it early.
Dean McCullough will be ‘first out’ on I’m A Celebrity
I’m A Celebrity viewers have taken to X in recent days to predict Dean will be the first celebrity to exit the jungle.
After a couple of poor performances on the trials – one solo, one with his partner GK Barry on Wednesday night’s episode – audiences are unimpressed.
Last night, GK and Dean didn’t get any stars in the trial. Throughout the challenge, the pair screamed and squealed. At the end of the episode, Ant and Dec announced that Dean will face tonight’s trial (November 21).
One person said: “Finding Dean on #ImACeleb rather annoying, hope he’s first to be voted out.”
Another kept it short and sweet: “Dean will be out first.”
A third has “absolutely zero sympathy” for Dean. Why? They said: “If you’re that frightened of everything, why go in the jungle in the first place?” Fair enough.
Another thinks Dean “might be first out”. But how does his trajectory compare to the one people predicted for him?
Before the show started last Sunday (November 17), bookies gave Dean a 12/1 chance of being crowned King of the Jungle. GK Barry – real name Grace Keeling – came out with better odds: 6/1!
Dean’s performance called ‘fake’
Predictions aside, there are some less charitable things being said about Dean’s time on I’m A Celeb.
One X user’s opinion is that he’s “playing up to the cameras for airtime,” based on his histrionics.
How fake is Dean. Needs to improve his acting skills.
“The faces Dean pulls… the worst fake acting I’ve ever seen,” another wrote. They appear to be referring to the speed with which the DJ flits between being dramatic and serene.
“How fake is Dean,” asked a third. “Needs to improve his acting skills. How quick[ly] he went from near-hysteria to being completely calm.”
Of course, this is just one way of interpreting his behaviour on the show. Another is that his emotions are entirely authentic and there is nothing disingenuous about his manner.
Some say the trial was ‘too hard’
But some audience members have come to the defence of Dean and GK Barry on I’m A Celeb, saying their Bushtucker trial was “way too hard”.
While the duo’s fates on I’m A Celebrity appear to be ailing, they might take comfort in fans saying they’re being “set up to fail”.
It certainly pushed their buttons. Dean, in the upper tank, had to retrieve keys from compartments containing toads, snakes and other critters.
He then had to pass them down to Grace, who was submerged in a lower tank. She had to take the keys down to the bottom of her tank and unlock padlocks, all while miniature crocodiles and scary-looking aquatics swum about her.
So there were many moving parts, and Dean and GK were afraid of all them. Ant and Dec found their performance a bit… frustrating.
“I scream and then she screams, it’s a vicious circle,” Dean said after the trial.
“What a pair,” was Ant’s reaction during the trial.
I’m A Celebrity continues every night at 9pm on ITV1.
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